The minimum I would go is 223.

.22 mag will take them down, my buddy uses a .260 which is a little over kill but hey they dont run far. All about shot placement.

Why are you shooting coyote? Should be your first question and that will determine which tool (Gun) you use. For 100 yards anything from 22 mag and up willquicklykill acoyote. I use a dedicated 223 with 55 grain hollowpointfor coyote, fox and other varmints effectivly out to 350 yards, past that my 308 comes out with 168 grain hollowpoint. I hunt them strictlyfor management, my club property is over run with fox, some coyote and other opossum and coons that kill the small game rabbit, squirrl, turkey chicks, quail, and the endangered delmarva fox squirrl, and the other 39 people in the club don't understand game management or just don't care. The first couple of years I hunted turkey on the property I called 1 coyote and lost count of foxes typically one at every location I called from. I guess the answer is whatever you want to use as long as it's humaine, if you want to sell the pelts usesmaller caliber's 17, 22mag,204, 222, 223, and 22-250, if you just want to kill without regard to the pelt use your deer gun, the practice will make you a better rifleman with your deer gun.

I think using a high caliber for small game is over kill. Not that the animal doesn’t deserve to blow up or some vegan or a.r.a. crap like that. My opinion on hunting: do whatever is necessary to bring it down, but waste nothing. If you blow it up with a huge caliber buffalo gun, your meat and pelt is screwed. You think the Indians hunted for the fun of the kill? They did it as a job that they were extremely efficient at. They hunted to put food on the table and clothes on there backs. Its like you going to your cubicle for you desk job. You don’t do it for the sheer joy of the paperwork or the adrenalin rush of the board meeting. Have you ever woke up and dreaded going to work? Well have ever you ever woken up and dreaded opening day of deer season? No.

the four things you owe to nature and the animal you kill:

1.be as good of a marks man as you can. if you sit up on a mountain looking over a prairie and you nail a deer 25 times until it dies, you are in the wrong. Not because its immoral, but because the suffering could have been avoided by you becoming a good shot and nailing him one, maybe too time in a vital point.
2.dont be repentant. If you take an animals life and try to hide it, you are in the wrong. Show what a beautiful animal it is: even in death, an animal should be hailed for being a remarkable piece of nature and the world we share with them.
3.praise the animal for being a trophy, not your self for downing it. It isn’t any harder to down a ten point buck than it is to down a 5 point buck(I realize that there are many exceptions, like the area, age, personal qualities of the animal, and such).if you got a trophy it means you followed rule number one. If someone got a 5 point, and you got the 10 point, you could have easily have traded places and that person would have killed it to.
4.dont waste any thing. You owe it to the animal to not take its life for nothing. Even if you could just go to the store and buy a hat, if you kill a raccoon, and you cant find a use for the skin, make a hat!

this is my opinion, and please post what you find different in your opinion.


I think ill put this in my signature and maybe make a topic about it. It took me a while to put my opinions in to words, and I don’t want to waste that time.

As a hunter we have a responsibility to balance nature, if we take 10 rabbits, 2 squirrel, 2 turkey, and a couple deer we destroy the natural carring capicity of the land. We must also manage the game which feed on the game we have taken, not because we eat fox, or coyote, but because we have to balance thepredator populating based on the prey we have taken. Otherwise we are no different than people who keep parks closed to hunting and the deer starve due to over population. I thinkmy point belongs in the management area though.

if you don't care if they run away after being shot usea rimfire. if you want to find them stick with a center fire.

First of all, what is your definition of a buffalo gun? I prefer my .308 to control the coyotes, for one reason-reliability. I tan my hides, I use the meat unless diseased, and I use the gutpiles for varminting, predation, and even composting. And don't compare the Native Americans into your own philosophical thread unless you have blood reasons to do so. My background is Cherokee and Choctaw, and to throw that in, is just funny business when it comes to predator management. It was not a job to manage wildlife and to hunt for any Native American, it was a collective duty as a whole to live off the land, and respect nature as well as you take it.
Second, not to offend you, but an animal should not be treated as just a trophy but more. The rewards of the stalk, the hunt, the animal, the harvest, and the products that follow are initially a trophy, yet to be thankful you had the ability to experience and use it all in a useful manner is the real trophy. And again, not to offend ya, but you were probably all amped up by typing your response, but you may watch your spelling. Not a problem, just oversight.


And this is for Missed Another, what was your insight on " if you don't care if they run away from being shot, use a rimfire. If you want them, use a centerfire". Isn't it ones duty and responsibility when you predation hunt, varmint hunt, or hunt for food/trophy, to take the animals life efficiently, not to wound it and hopefully it dies in a corner out of your sight???? Sounds to a point like that is laziness and irresponsible mixed together, unless you can correct the manner of what you said and define. Lets see, I see a coyote out there at 90 yards. I am going to shoot them wherever with my .22 LR, and oh, he/she didn't die, oh well, look at the time. I gotta get my Starbucks! Sounds like predation management to you is injure it with the rimfire, and let nature take its course. Not my philosophy at all.

I do have Cherokee backgrounds (only 1/16[my great great grandma] but hey its something) but I don’t consider that at all when I post. I was simply using them as an example.

when I posted I was kind of getting worked up[&:]. I have a thing about people who drive out in the woods, walk to the nearest clearing wait for 1 of a thousand deer within 3-4 miles of them, take it and go home. No finding the deer, no stalking the deer, a lot of times not even then harsh conditions.

Encarta definition of HUNT- to search persistently for something difficult to find.

just did spell check.

.223 or 22-250. only because it will do the job past 300 yrds. 17 hmr is also a nice round but to questionable past 100 yrds.

What do you use the coyote and fox meat for?